I am also fascinated by what's up out there. But it's the last fact that I can't get my head around. I have come to grips with the big bang theory - up to a point. If I pour vodka into a glass, it displaces a certain amount of air that was there beforehand. So if the universe was created in a flash and expanded to an unbelievable size in a milli-second, into what did it expand? What was there before? And as it is still expanding, again I'd love to know what it is displacing.

So many things about the universe fascinate me - much of it because it's virtually impossible to fully grasp the numbers or fully comprehend the sizes and distances.

They used to say there are more stars than grains of sand on the entire earth. Now that has been revised and they're saying there is at least double that number. I can't even count the number of grains of sand still clinging to my feet when I leave the beach.

Scientists say the universe began from a singularity so massively dense and simply exploded into existence - from nothing. I can't even visualize or comprehend "nothing."

And then there's the speed of light - 186,000mps - 300,000kps - fast enough to circle the earth more than 7 times in one second. One thing I wonder about, but have never seen addressed, is why light travels at that speed. Why doesn't light travel faster than that or slower than that? How did the universe establish that to be the speed?

One of the prevailing theories I like is the idea that the universe will eventually collapse upon itself and end up as a singularity again. If that happens, maybe a new universe will "big bang" itself into existence - and if that is a possibility, then for all we know there were quadrillions of universes before the one we live in came into existence. Whether ours is one among many or the first and only, I'd love to be able to fully understand it and how it all began.

With the numbers of stars out there, I'm among those who are convinced that there must be other life out there, perhaps in a universe teeming with it. I would very much like to live long enough to see life elsewhere to be discovered and proven, even if it is only some sort of microbial life.

I am also among those who do not believe aliens have visited Earth, assuming alien life with the intelligence, ability, and technology to be able to do so actually exists. With that many stars and planets, the odds of any aliens stumbling on us are so hugely against it, I just don't believe it. But I would love to be proven wrong.

I've always said I don't believe in God while others say God created everything. What I can't get my head around is this. If God doesn't exist then who or what DID create everything. If it all did start with the singularity then who created that? Too much for my little mind.

I also do not believe in God or any other form of deity. I believe somewhere along the line people simply made it up, probably as a means of trying to make sense out of things they otherwise could not understand.

The fact that most of us are unlikely to be able to fully understand these astronomy and creation concepts does not mean a deity was required to make it happen. And even if a deity really did create everything, then the next question is where did this deity come from?

If the universe was created from nothing, how can there be a God? Where was God at that point? Were there other universes out there at that moment? I say that as one who does kind of believe in some form of Superior Being/Authority/Knowledge - call it what you will. Then again, I believe along with GB that the various Gods that humans have worshipped were merely a convenient means not just of making sense of everything, but of keeping the peoples of our world in some sort of order. This was particularly true when the majority of the world was living in abject poverty. If you are told "be good whilst on this earth, my son, and you will end up not in hell, not in purgatory but in the glories of heaven", that surely helped the rich and powerful maintain good order.

I remember being told when I was younger, "God has always been there". Been where? If he created everything then where was he before he created it?and for how long? Was he hanging around in nothingness for billions of years or what? None of it makes any sense which is one of the reasons I don't do religion. Just bollocks as far as I'm concerned.The whole thing always reminds me of the scene from A Few Good Men. "I want the truth". - "You can't handle the truth".Probably right - but try me.

There's a saying from the ancient Hindu Vedas that ' what exists cannot cease to exist, what does not exist cannot come into existence'. The universe did not emerge out of nothing, which is a ridiculous proposition. What does exist and always has done is Consciousness itself, which is God. The universe, and all beings and things within it, arises in and to Consciousness or the Mind of God. The materialists have it back to front when they assume that matter somehow preceded Consciousness. How and when did Consciousness suddenly emerge out of matter? Consciousness precedes all.